Showing 1 - 10 of 95
Our tariff-era dollar, your problem
Oped, Qiyuan Xu, Published on 04/02/2026
» In 2025, the dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of major currencies, fell by roughly 9.4%. Over the same period, the United States' average effective tariff rate rose by around 14.4 percentage points, from 2.4% to 16.8%, according to the Yale Budget Lab. Taken together, these shifts imply that, in the import trade domain, the US experienced an effective exchange-rate depreciation of around 24%.
Undue influence
Oped, Postbag, Published on 04/02/2026
» Re: "Fears grow after early vote", (BP, Feb 2).
When infrastructure meets AI
Oped, Bertrand Badré & Saurabh Mishra, Published on 16/01/2026
» Infrastructure investment is booming. Around the world, governments are pouring trillions of dollars into roads, power grids, data centres, water systems, and housing, with many responding to intensifying climate shocks and the growing need for adaptation. Yet the construction industry -- the single largest force physically reshaping the planet -- is among the last major sectors to unlock all the benefits that digital technology offers. As a result, it accounts for about 21% of greenhouse-gas emissions, produces half of global landfill waste, and overspends by US$1.6 trillion a year.
How G20 can help curb inequality
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 01/12/2025
» This month's G20 Summit in Johannesburg marked several historic firsts. For starters, it was the group's first-ever summit in Africa, and the first to include the African Union as a full-fledged member. It also set less encouraging precedents: it was the first meeting boycotted by a key founding member -- the United States -- on spurious grounds, and the first in which that same country tried to prevent the host from issuing a final declaration. Equally unprecedented was South Africa's decision to ignore the American threat and issue one anyway.
Is Takaichi Sanae the 'Iron Lady' of Japan?
Oped, Koichi Hamada, Published on 10/11/2025
» For the first time in its history, Japan's parliament has selected a woman, Takaichi Sanae of the Liberal Democratic Party, to be prime minister. In this sense, Ms Takaichi has already followed in the footsteps of her political idol, Margaret Thatcher -- the UK's first female PM. But whether she is remembered as Japan's own "Iron Lady" will depend on her ability to manage three key challenges: inflation, low female labour-force participation and a fraught geopolitical environment.
Time to focus on climate funding
Oped, Rakesh Mohan & Janak Raj, Published on 04/11/2025
» Discussions about climate finance often focus on the most vulnerable countries, such as small island developing states -- and for good reason. But the nine major emerging-market economies (EMEs) -- Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey -- also have significant climate-finance needs, which must be met if the world is to have any chance of achieving its climate goals. Nowhere are those needs larger than in China.
Courts are shaping climate action
Oped, Francesca Mascha Klein & Laura Schäfer, Published on 03/11/2025
» Amid rising geopolitical tensions, pressure to comply with climate obligations increasingly comes from courts. Earlier this year, both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued landmark advisory opinions affirming that countries must address climate change, and that failure to do so may carry serious legal consequences.
Govts need to balance ethics, AI innovation
Oped, J. P. Singh, Published on 27/10/2025
» The biggest governance dilemma in AI is setting guidelines for the technology's ethical use without unduly weakening the incentive to innovate.
In defence of encryption for a digital future
Oped, Sally Wentworth, Published on 22/10/2025
» Encryption, the simple act of scrambling data so that it cannot be read by third parties, keeps us, our loved ones, and our communities safe by protecting everything from private messages to online-banking details and medical records. It is the foundation of trust in our digital society, as crucial for personal security as it is for national security.
Asean advance
Oped, Postbag, Published on 20/10/2025
» Re: "Timor-Leste finally joins the Asean fold", (Opinion, Oct 14).